Introduction

This guide provides record group level descriptions for archival
holdings maintained at NARA's Southeast
Region in Atlanta, Georgia. A record group, the basic unit of archival
control, is a body of organizationally related records designated by a
number and the name of the federal agency, bureau, or activity that created
or received them. NARA's Southeast Region in Atlanta has 104 record groups,
representing Federal agencies, bureaus, or other administrative units including
federal courts in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi,
North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.

How to Use This Guide

Access to record group entries can be by:
Subject - Users with an interest in a specific subject can go to the
list of subjects, A - L and M -
Z. The list provides access to subjects
covered in a specific record group. It is not an exhaustive index to individual
documents or files.

Administrative History - Brief history of the agency. For a
more detailed history see Guide to Federal Records in the National Archives
of the United States.

Administrative History - The General Land Office
(GLO) was established within the Department of the Treasury by an act of
April 25, 1812, to administer all public land transactions except surveying
and map work (which came under the supervision of the GLO in 1836). In
1849, the GLO was transferred to the Department of the Interior where it
was merged with the Grazing Service in 1946 to form the Bureau of Land
Management. The Bureau classifies, manages, and disposes of public lands
and their resources and administers Federally-owned mineral resources on
non-Federal land and on the Outer Continental Shelf.

Records Description - Dates: 1800-1908 Volume:
38 cubic feet
Records of land offices in Illinois, 1814-1885; Indiana, 1807-1876;
Minnesota, 1855-1882; Ohio, 1800-1828; and Wisconsin, 1888-1905.
The records document the name of the purchaser or grantee, county of
residence at the time of purchase, legal description of the land, and the
certificate number. Included are entries for cash payments, credit certificates,
and purchase applications; copies of correspondence; homestead information;
and abstracts of land warrants. For Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, there
is a docket of homestead entries, 1868-1908. The records are bound volumes
(record books), some containing an index.

Finding Aids - Published and informal preliminary inventories,
box contents lists, folder title lists and other aids to using the records.

Related Microfilm Publications - National Archives microfilm
publications held by the Atlanta facility of records related to those described
in this entry, listed in alpha/numeric order.

Related Microfilm Publications - M8,Journal
and Report of James L. Cathcart and James Hutton, Agents Appointed by the
Secretary of the Navy to Survey Timber Resources Between the Mermentau
and Mobile Rivers 1818-1819;M25, Miscellaneous Letters Sent
by the General Land Office, 1796-1889;M27, Letters Sent
by the General Land Office to the Surveyor General, 1796-1901.

Restrictions - Federal records may be restricted by Federal
statute or the creating agency, or may carry a national security classification.
Notice of restriction is given where applicable.